News

ORICA-SCOTT searching for stages at the Ladies Tour of Norway

Mon 14 Aug 2017

ORICA-SCOTT women head to Norway this week for the four-day LadiesTour of Norway as it steps up to be a WorldTour race for 2017.

This year the race has been extended to four-days with the addition of an opening prologue on Thursday 17th August. Sport director Gene Bates believes the team line-up is balanced and strong as they aim for stage victories.

“We will look to go for stage wins with the group of riders we have,” said Bates. “We will go all in for the opening prologue and then asses each day as we go. We have riders that can do different things and will give everybody opportunities within the race.”

With a abundance of rolling and undulating terrain throughout the country, the race is set to be a challenging one suiting an aggressive style of racing and ORICA-SCOTT’s strengths.

“There’s no real critical moment in the road stages, like a long climb, it is just up and down all day which lends it’s self to an aggressive style of racing,” Bates continued. “Stage one or two could possibly come down to a sprint but previously in this race we saw small groups clipping of the front so it could end either way.”

“Stage three looks like it will finish with more of a selective group, it is long, almost 160kilomtres and finishes on a really technical tough circuit, so out of all four stages that is the one likely to shape the overall.

“They are quite long stages here and it is good to see women’s racing stepping up and allowing for longer stages like this and it makes the racing really hard.“

Last year the team didn’t compete in the event but in 2015 Amanda Spratt finished with third place overall, the Tour Down Under winner won’t feature in this year’s team roster instead Australian champion Katrin Garfoot, Gracie Elvin, Rachel Neylan, Jennelle Crooks and Alex Manly will comprise the six-rider squad along with Kiwi Georgia Williams.

The Scandinavian WorldTour race provides the teams with the perfect build up and preparation for the world championships which take place one month later in Norway as ORICA-SCOTT look to continue their successful momentum in this latter part of the season.